"I have always been a champion of the goldfish," said writer Tai Moses. "But it's not easy being a champion of the goldfish. People think it's hilarious. They think, 'It's just a goldfish, c'mon.' But they really are individuals. They have intelligence and personality and they really do deserve to have a good life like any other animal."

The goldfish is just one of the subjects in the former Santa Cruzan's new book "Zooburbia: Meditations on the Wild Animals Among Us" (Parallax Press). But, mostly, Moses — who comes to Bookshop Santa Cruz on May 13 — isn't focused on animals that we consider pets in her book. It is, instead, an exploration of that domain where the lives of humans and the lives of wild animals intersect.

"When we interact with animals, we enter a different realm," she said. "It's a bit like being in a foreign country where you don't speak the language but you're trying to communicate and you're trying not to make a buffoon of yourself or get hurt. It's a bit of a challenge."

Moses is known in Santa Cruz for her work in the alternative press. She first lived in Santa Cruz in the 1980s, moved away to New York just before the Loma Prieta Earthquake — "It felt like the wrong timing; I felt like I should have been there" — moved back to Santa Cruz in the 1990s and moved away again to Oakland in 2002. In July, she said, she and her husband plan to move yet again to Santa Cruz — "for the last time, no more leaving."

All throughout her life, she's been interested in the lives of animals, particularly in their adaptation to human habitation. "Zooburbia" is her way of making sense of her own encounters with the animal kingdom as a wildlife gardener and as a longtime volunteer for Oakland's animal shelter.

"I live in this urban environment, but there are so many animals around me. Almost on a daily basis, I have some kind of encounter with some wild animal or bird. And that kind of thing really does change you."

Nonhuman animals have, of course, been subject to all kinds of exploitation at the hands of humans. Moses finds herself solidly in the camp that believes animals have a natural right to a life of self-determination.

"I don't believe in human exceptionalism," she said. "That is the root cause of so many of our problem, our deeply embedded beliefs, which are so seldom challenged that we have a higher moral status just because we are human. We believe we are better than animals and that we can control and confine and slaughter and eat them, we experiment on them and breed them, we can hunt them and dominate them into oblivion. But, as a society, I believe we are slowly evolving and that our perceptions of animals are changing. That's partly due to science, which is finally telling us what we've always known, that animals experience emotions like grief and love, and they feel and think and make distinctions."

"Zooburbia" also tells the story of the author's own experience as a pedestrian hit by a car in San Francisco. Ultimately, she was uninjured in the accident, but she related that experience to one of the most regrettable consequences of human-animal interaction: roadkill.

"It was a terrifying experience," said Moses. "I was in such a state of shock, I really couldn't even speak. But I was terrified lying in the street, wanting desperately only to get out of the street, and later I thought that's just how it's like for animals."